Simeone leads Atletico Madrid outcry after penalty appeals ignored in Arsenal defeat

However neither referee Daniel Siebert, his assistants nor VAR deemed the contact worthy of rewarding with a spot-kick.

Simeone said afterwards: “It was all very fast but what I felt was that when I was taking the shot he destabilized me and I couldn’t shoot well. It’s what I felt.

“The referee didn’t even go to check the VAR. The same happened in the play with Antoine (Griezmann).”

The second incident occurred shortly after when Riccardo Calafiori brought down Atletico’s Antoine Griezmann in the box, with VAR reviewing the strong challenge.

Giuliano Simeone was brought down by Gabriel (AP)

Calafiori was later not penalised for a foul on Griezmann (Reuters)

However no penalty was awarded as Atletico full-back Marc Pubill was judged to have fouled Gabriel Magalhaes in the build-up to that incident, with former Champions League referee Mark Clattenburg explaining the rationale behind the decision on broadcaster Amazon Prime.

He said: “I think what the VAR has looked at is Calafiori's challenge on Grizemann. He believes that's a penalty kick, and replays show it was, but there was a foul just before on Gabriel.

"So they had to check the foul first and he agrees with the referee's analysis of a foul. Therefore, the foul outweighs the penalty kick.”

Diego Simeone attempted to downplay the referee’s calls afterwards but was evidently disappointed, saying: “There’s nothing to say. We are out and we need to congratulate Arsenal. We have to keep working. We won’t focus on a detail that can be seen and is very obvious.”

Atletico midfielder Koke said: “I’m not going to talk about the referee, I’m sure he tried to do his best, just like it happened in the first match. He’ll know how he should have refereed. I imagine that he tried his best.”